When it s real you can t walk away
by Isavanna
Summary: Damon walks in to the Grill, sits down in the bar and order his drink, but when he tries to compell the new bartender into giving it to him for free it doesn t work... why is that? And who is she?
1. Chapter 1

**So I´m going to give this whole writing thing another try….**

**Chapter 1**

It was late Sunday afternoon in the small town of Mystic Falls. Matt was doing his usual shift at the Grill when a dark haired girl walked in. She was wearing dark blue jeans a white t-shirt and dark sunglasses. She sat down in the bar and put the dark glasses on her head.

"Hi, I´m Matt, can I get you something?"

"Yeah, a job." She gave him a smile. Matt just looked at her.

"What?" She pointed towards the sign in the window.

"The sign says you are hiring, and I need a job."

"Oh, that. Well I can´t give you the job, I´m not the manager. But, I can give you a form to fill in."

"I really need this job; I mean I really really need this job. I happen to like food, and to buy food you need money and to earn money you need a job, ergo I really need this job."

"That bad huh?" Matt said feeling sympathy for the girl. She just nodded. "How about this, I get you some coffee and a burger and you can wait here, the manager should be here in an hour or two."

"I have no place to be so that sounds great." She gave him a huge honest smile.

Matt brought her the burger and gave her another curios look.

"You never told me your name."

"It´s Haley," She said with her mouth full. "This is seriously the best burger I´ve ever had"

It took almost an hour before the manager showed up, but with a little help from Matt by the end of the conversation Haley was hired as the new bartender. She was just about to leave when Matt called her.

"Hey, Haley. Where are you staying?"

"A little motel just outside the town."

"The Come and Stay?" She nodded in response.

"Yeah. It´s not the greatest place but it´s the best I can afford."

"It´s a dump, uhm, don't take this the wrong, but you could come and stay at my house…"

Haley´s jaw dropped.

"I´m not sure your family would appreciate that." Matt shook his head.

"No that´s just it, it´s just me. My mom is off with Pete or Paul or whatever his name is, and Vicki, my sister skipped town a couple of months ago. It would be nice with some company and a little extra money. The way I see it we both win…" She thought about it for minute.

"No tricks?"

"Promise, no tricks. I get off at 8, pick up your stuff and meet me here, I´m guessing you don´t want to stay at that place any longer than necessary."

"Yeah, I don´t mind having roommates, but when they are cockroaches, well let´s just say I´m not a fan."

As Matt headed off to the kitchen she yelled a "Thank you after him."

As she got in her car to go back to that hideous motel and pack what little things she had she smile to herself.

Maybe this isn´t such a bad place after all, she thought.

Just as the clock turned 8 she parked her car outside the Grill again waiting for Matt to come out.

He spotted her and walked over to her, looked at her car and frowned.

"What the hell kind of car is that?"

"It´s a Saab, it´s imported."

"I almost guessed that much. So are you ready?"

She pointed towards the window making him look inside the car.

"Man you sure have a lot of stuff." She smiled at him.

"Not really, it´s just clothes. I just have to ask one more time; are you sure about this? I mean sharing your house with me?"

"Yes, I am sure. It would be really nice to have some company again, since Vicki left it´s been really lonesome. And some help with rent isn´t half bad either."

"Okay, I´m convinced."

Haley followed behind Matt's car, and when they arrived at Matt's house he helped her carry all her clothes in to Vicki's old room.

"I can make some coffee while you unpack and maybe then we could set some kind of rules?"

Haley didn´t know what say so she just smiled and nodded. "Sure, give me a minute or two."

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting in Matt's living room.

"Soo, she said. Rules?"

"Okay, rules maybe isn´t the right words, how about understanding?"

"Sure." She was still unsure what to expect.

"What´s your last name?"

"Pierce. Haley Pierce."

"Matt Donovan. How old are you? If you don´t mind me asking?"

"Just turned 19. I get the feeling you would like to know a little more about the person you just invited to share your home?" She smiled at him again.

"Yeah. That would be nice."

"My name is Haley Pierce, I´m 19, I moved here 2 days ago from nowhere. I´m an army kid, dad died in Iraq, my mom and brother passed away a little over a year ago so I´m pretty much on my own… she stopped talking. Well I guess that´s about it."

"Wow, I´m sorry." Matt said honestly.

"Thanks, but it´s okay. How did I do? Did I pass?"

Matt chuckled. "I think you did. How about this. If one of us for any reason isn´t coming home for the night we let the other one know. If you use the last of something you replace it, first one up makes coffee and we respect each other's personal lives?"

She gave him a nod. "It´s a deal."

"Great. Then welcome home roomie." He gave her a huge grin. "Now I have to get over to Caroline´s I really think I need to break the news to her gently."

"Caroline? Your girlfriend I presume."

"Yes, when you get to know her I´m sure you´ll like her. It´s hard NOT to like her."

"I´m sure I will."

Matt went off to Caroline and Haley went to bed early, happy to actually have a real bed to sleep in and not just a crappy motel bed.

_Okay, that´s it, please let me know what you think…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Two days later

Damon Salvatore walked in to the Grill and sat down in his usual spot gesturing to the bartender.

"Bourbon." He said without looking up. The bartender poured him a glass and placed it in front of him.

"That will be…"

Damon looked up and looked straight in to her deep blue eyes.

"…free…" He smirked.

"No it won´t. You´ll have to pay just like everyone else."

_What the hell… why isn´t she affected by my compulsion?_

He took a second to actually look at her. Her long dark brown hair was loosely put up in a ponytail. She was wearing worn out blue jeans and a white T-shirt, and as beautiful as she looked to Damon the most mesmerizing part of her was her eyes. They were as deep blue as any ocean but at the same time there were life in them, he could almost see her soul through her eyes.

"You can´t blame a guy for trying, can you?" He smirked at her and earned a smile in return.

"No I guess not."

"You are not the usual bartender."

"No, he quit. I just started a couple of days ago. I´m Haley."

"Well hello Haley, I´m Damon." He stretched out his hand. She took it and lightly shook it.

_God, this guy is gorgeous… Oh come on Haley knock it off._ She mentally gave herself a lecture for having those kinds of thoughts.

"I haven´t seen you around town before. You must be new."

"Just moved here a few days ago."

"Hmm interesting, are you planning on staying long?"

"Well, that depends…" She left the rest of the sentence hanging in the air.

"On what?" Damon asked.

"On whether or not this town holds something worth sticking around for."

What are you doing? Why on earth are you flirting with this guy?

"Well I´m sure there is something worth sticking around for." He once again smirked at her.

"I´m sure I´ll find out one way or the other." One of the other guests called for her attention and she left Damon on his chair staring at her from behind.

About an hour later Elena and Stefan came to the Grill, closely followed by Bonnie and Caroline. They sat down at their usual table and waited for Matt to come and take their orders.

"I´m so not approving of Matt having a roommate. Especially a girl, Caroline said between gritted teeth. She better be nice as hell."

"And by nice as hell you of course mean butt ugly." Bonnie said and couldn´t help smiling at Caroline's jealousy.

"Of course."

Matt came up to them.

"Hi guy´s what can I get you?"

"Coffee." Elena said and Stefan asked for the same. Caroline and Bonnie settled for a soda.

"That´s all?" Matt seemed surprised.

"Yep. But I would like to know more about this roommate of yours." Elena said with a curious smile.

"I can do better; do you want to meet her?" The girls all gave Matt a look that said "Duh". "I´ll get her." Matt went over to the bar and said something to the girl behind it; she nodded and followed him back to the table.

"Guys, this is Haley, my new roommate."

Caroline´s jaw dropped and her eyes went black with jealousy, Bonnie lightly kicked her leg. But Elena smiled and extended her hand.

"Hi Haley, I´m Elena. This is Stefan, Bonnie and Caroline. Nice to meet you."

"Hi, she smiled at them. Nice to meet you too. But I think I better get back to the bar, I really don´t feel like getting fired my first week."

She left the group and returned to the bar where Damon was still sitting and drinking his bourbon.

"Could I get a refill?"

She studied him suspiciously. "How much have you had?"

"Not nearly enough honey." After looking at him a few second longer she decided that he wasn´t that drunk.

"One condition…"

"And what would that be?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestivlly, but Haley ignored him.

"Give me your car keys, I don´t want you driving and getting in to an accident."

"If I give you my keys you leave the bottle on the bar."

"Deal." She extended her hand and Damon reluctantly put his car keys in it. As soon as she put them in her pocket Damon once again looked at her. She really was beautiful but she looked way too young to work in a bar.

"Shouldn´t you be in school or something?"

"Not that it´s any of your concern, but no I shouldn´t."

He frowned. "How old are you?"

_Why the hell do you care Salvatore?_

"Again, none of your concern but I´m 19. So schools out for me."

"Hm, you don´t say. So you graduated last year?"

By now Haley was getting a little uncomfortable, she really didn´t like to answer questions about her personal life.

"You sure ask a lot of question, you know that?"

"So I´ve been told."

"My turn, what´s your name?"

"I told you, Damon."

"Last name?"

"Salvatore." When she hears his name she frowned.

"Like the founding family?"

Damon looked surprised.

"How do you know that? I thought you moved here recently."

"My great great something grandmother was born here."

Damon was just about to ask her who it was but another customer wanted her attention, and to be perfectly honest about it his questions was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable.

When Matt´s shift ended two hours later Damon was still sitting in his place with the nearly emptied bottled in front of him.

"Haley, I´m leaving with Caroline now but I´ll be home later."

"Okay, I get off at 11, so I´ll see you later. Have fun." She smiled at him.

"Soooo, you´re living with Matt. Are you related?"

"He´s just a friend. And speaking of home considering the amount of alcohol you´ve been consuming, I think you´d better head home yourself."

"No can do… you took my car keys and I live just outside town."

"I did take your keys, and tomorrow I will give them back to you. But right now I´m going to call a cab for you."

Out of nowhere, or so it seemed one of Matts friends Stefan, appeared.

"Damon stop hustling this nice girl, Elena and I are leaving, and so are you." Stefan smirked at Damon before turning to Haley. "I´m sorry if my brother has bothered you."

"It´s okay, I´ve met worse." She gave Stefan a smile.

"I´ll bet they didn´t look as good as me." Damon said, still smirking.

"Well that´s for me to know and you to never find out, have a good night now, and welcome back to get your keys tomorrow."

"Stefan can take them."

"No I can´t. Stefan said. You got drunk, you´ll pick them up."

"It really was nice to meet you Haley, Elena said. I hope we´ll get a chance to talk some more another time."

Haley just smiled and nodded. Elena really did seem like a nice girl, but then again she had no idea how long she would stay in this town.


	3. Chapter 3

_Wow, I can´t believe how many story alerts and favorite story alert I have got! I´m SO excited. So thank you all very very much! I hope you enjoy this next chapter to._

Chapter 3

It was late afternoon when Damon the next day walked in to the Grill to pick up his car keys only to find that Haley's shift didn´t start until later that evening.

Annoyed he looked at the young man standing behind the bar.

"And what do you suggest I do until then?"

"I… I don´t know… maybe I can get you a drink?"

"Why don´t you do that." Damon said smirking.

After his third drink Haley was still nowhere to be found and Damon was now getting tired of waiting.

"Hey, he said to the bartender. Where does Mutt live?

"Who is Mutt? Oh, you mean Matt."

"Matt, Mutt whatever, where does he live?"

"Just outside the town, would you like to have his address?"

"I wouldn´t have asked otherwise now would I?"

Damon finally managed to get Matt´s address from the bartender and left to find the house, it turned out to be rather easy and in less than 20 minutes he was outside knocking at the door.

A little surprised and quite annoyed Haley opened the door only to find Damon, the really hot but way to nosy guy from last night outside.

When she opened the door all Damon could do was stare at her. She was wearing only a pair of black sweatpants and a white tank top, her hair hanging in wet tassels from just taking a shower.

"Damon? What are you doing here?"

"I came to get my keys of course. You said I could come get them today, so here I am." He gave her a smirk.

"I didn´t mean you could come knock at my door, I meant for you to come by the grill when I worked."

"Well you should have been more specific then, shouldn´t you."

Haley just shook her head not knowing what to say.

"I´ll get your keys, hang on a minute." She turned to walk back inside.

"Aren´t you going to invite me in?"

"No, I don´t usually invite strange men into my house, well technically this isn´t my house but still, I won´t invite you in, not today anyway." She gave him a small smile.

"But you might someday?"

"Maybe… "She returned with his keys and handed them over. "Here you are."

"Thank you. You know I don´t think you told me the name of you great great something grandmother… you know as a member of a founding family I always take an interest when a long lost townie returns."

"Fell, her name was Margaret Fell."

"Honoria´s younger sister?"

Surprised she looked at him. "Yes, how did you know?"

"I know my history."

"Obviously." She stated.

"What ever happened to her? From what I recall she left the town at a young age."

She gave him another surprised look; this guy really knew a lot about this town and its history. Maybe a little too much? No, there´s no way he would know about… STOP IT! I´m not going to go down that road again, the past is just that, the past!

"I think she grew up with some distant relatives further down in the south. I think they sent her away for medical reasons."

Or they sent her away to survive the vampires…Damon thought. But of course he didn´t say it out loud.

"So is that the reason you came here?"

"I don´t know, maybe. I mean both my mom and dad were second generation army kids so I don´t really belong anywhere. I´ve been around most of the world, so I figured why not see where my family originally came from."

"Where are your parents? Off to some forgotten land in the middle east?"

She gave him a sad smile and shook her head.

"I wish, but no. My dad got killed in Iraq, and my mom past away shortly after."

"No other family?" He asked.

Again she was feeling a little annoyed by all his questions.

"What is it with you and all these questions?" She said earning another smirk from Damon.

"Just curious."

"Don´t be. I´m nothing exiting I promise you that. And I really don´t like questions about my personal life."

"Fine, I´ll stop asking about your personal life, do you want to go get a drink?"

She did her best not to laugh which was pretty hard considering the fact that she was still under 21.

"It´s four o´clock in the afternoon, I´m still under age and I have to be at work in a couple of hours so I think I´ll have to pass."

"Tomorrow is Friday, are you working then?"

"No I´m free tomorrow."

A huge grin appeared on Damon´s face.

"Tomorrow night we´re going for drinks. No I have an even better idea, dinner and drinks at my place."

Say no, say no, this guy is nothing but trouble, her brain was telling her but at the same time she was really beginning to get curious as to why this hot, but really annoying guy wanted to get her drunk.

She thought about it for a while longer before nodding her head.

"Okay, dinner and drinks at your place tomorrow night."

"Great." He turned around and started to walk away when Haley called him.

"Hey Damon, you might want to give me your address."

"It´s the old Salvatore boarding house, it shouldn´t be too hard to find."

As Haley closed the door she couldn´t quite shake the feeling that she´d just made a deal with the devil.

When Haley came to work a couple of hours later Elena was waiting for her.

"Hi, I just wanted to apologize for anything and everything Damon might have said or done last night."

Haley laughed at her, "It´s okay. Whatever he said or did is on him, not you. By the way, why are you apologizing for him?"

Elena smiled back at her. "Oh it´s just our thing Damon acts like an ass and Stefan and I apologize the next day."

Haley laughed again.

"Okay, well as long as it works for you guys. You are dating Stefan, right?"

"Yeah, and Damon he´s just kind of a part of the deal. Look, I wanted to ask you if you want to do something, maybe go to the mall?"

"Sure, I´d love to."

"How about tomorrow?"

"That would be great. Hey Elena, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"I think I kind of told Damon I would come over for dinner and drinks tomorrow night. Is that a horrible idea because it kind of feels like I made a deal with the devil or something…"

You have no idea how close to the truth you really are, Elena thought, but out loud she said;

"No, it´s not horrible if you know what you get yourself into."

"And what would that be?" Haley wasn´t sure if she should be scared or excited.

"Let´s just say Damon has character. But I´ll see you tomorrow? Do you want me to pick you up? We could go hunting for the perfect outfit to make Damon crazy…" Elena smirked at her.

"I like the way you think."

"School ends at 2, I´ll come straight to your house."

"Perfect."

As they decided Elena picked Haley up right after school ended and they headed for the mall. They spent the entire afternoon going through every single store, talking and laughing and just getting to know each other.

Elena turned out to be really funny and sweet and caring, not that Haley was surprised. In fact almost everyone in this town seemed very nice, almost to the point where it was a little unnatural.

Stop that! Just because you have secrets doesn´t mean everyone else has it too, Haley told herself.

Elena dropped Haley of so that she had just enough time to take a shower and get ready for her evening with Damon, since she wasn´t exactly clear on what this evening was, she decided to wear dark jeans and a white shirt. She put on some light make up and just let her hair hang loose around her shoulders.

Just as Damon said it wasn´t that hard to find the Salvatore boarding house. She parked her car and got out of it while looking at the huge garden surrounding the old house.

She walked up to the front door and hesitated a second before knocking at it. Damon opened almost immediately pleasantly surprised he scanned her from top to toe and then back again.

"Well hello Haley, you are right on time."

She gave him a small smile while looking at him. He wore his usual dark jeans and a black shirt, but somehow it never became boring on him. It just made him look even more gorgeous.

"Well you were right. It wasn´t that hard to find."

"Come in, I´ll get you something to drink. What do you want? Beer, wine, bourbon?" He stepped aside and let her in.

Haley was just amazed at the beauty of the old house. It was like stepping in to a time machine, it looked time had stood still for decades and for some reason she felt right at home.

"I´ll take whatever you are having." She said as she followed him in to the huge living room.

He opened a beer and handed it to her.

"Here, I think we better start off easy."

"Thanks. So what are we eating?"

"Pasta. It´s almost done."

Haley gave him a surprised look. "I´m sorry, what? You cook?"

Damon couldn´t help but smile at her. There was nothing mocking or teasing in her voice, it was just pure surprise.

"Yes, I cook."

"Hm, interesting. "She said and smiling headed towards where the wonderful smell came from. Damon followed her and made a gesture towards one of the chairs at the island in the kitchen.

"Have a seat while I finish this up for us."

"Where did you learn to cook?" She asked.

"Oh here and there, mostly in Italy."

"You´ve been there?"

He raised an eyebrow and smirked at her. "The name Salvatore didn´t give it away?"

"Of course I know your name is Italian but that doesn´t mean you are."

"I guess you have a point." He held up two plates with food on. "Well dinners ready, please follow me."

Haley did as Damon asked and followed him into the large dining room. The table was beautiful set with candles and everything. Haley once again smiled approvingly, before she spoke again, this time in Italian.

"Siete davvero pieni di sorprese."

Italian is a beautiful language, and Haley spoke fluently without a hint of an accent which warmed Damon's undead heart.

"You speak Italian?" He said as he pulled her chair out.

"Si, I spent three years there."

"Why?" He held up a bottle of red wine with a questioning look on his face.

"Yes, thank you. My dad was stationed there. I´m an army kid remember. Are you going to spend this entire night asking me questions?"

What, she´s a mind reader now? Damon thought

"I´m just curios."

"So I´ve noticed. This food is really good. I think I´m actually starting to like you."

"I´ll make you a deal. You´ll answer my questions and I´ll answer yours. We each get to free passes."

Haley thought about it for a second.

"Okay, deal. My turn. You and Stefan live here alone. Why?"

"It´s our home, we may not like each other very much but we are brother, we are all we have."

Two bottle of wines later dinner and dessert was long ago finished but to Damon's amusement Haley was barely tipsy. His original plan was to get her drunk as fast as possible and then get all the answers he wanted from her. But somewhere along the night this very beautiful girl had gotten him interested. Sure he was still dead set to get what he wanted from her but he was no longer in any hurry.

"Thank you so much for dinner and drinks, but it´s getting late, I think I better head home."

"What? No no no, we haven´t even begun the real drinking and all the other fun stuff." Damon gave her his famous smirk.

"Somehow I know I´m going to regret asking this, but what fun stuff?"

Damon appeared in front of her with a microphone. "Karaoke of course."

"Seriously? I thought the questions were bad…"

"Oh we are not done with those either."

"Then you better get me something really strong to drink. By the way it´s my turn to ask."

"Shoot."

"Why are you so interested in this town's old history? Is there something that I don´t know about?" This time Haley was smirking, almost like she knew something but didn´t want him to know that she knows.

"Here, he said and handed her a drink. It turns out this town has a really interesting history."

She tried the drink and just as she asked it was strong.

"What´s so interesting about it?"

"Uh uh, my turn. I´ll be nice, what´s your last name?"

"Pierce."

Damon´s jaw dropped.


	4. Chapter 4

_So here´s the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. I must say all the story alerts and favorite story alerts are a huge boost for my ego. I guess I´m doing something right. Feel free to leave a review if you like it!_

Chapter 4

"Pierce? You have got to be kidding me?"

"No, why? Is there something wrong with my name?"

Damon didn´t seem like a guy that easily was surprised so his reaction really got Haley's attention.

"No no, it´s not the name, it´s the bitch that was attached to it. Not you."

"Well thank you for that. I think. Who was she?"

She must have been special… and not in a good way, Haley thought

"She was someone Stefan and I knew a long time ago. Her name was Katherine, and she was the most beautiful girl we had ever seen, but she was also the cruelest and most selfish one."

"I think one of my old ancestors name was Katherine. How funny is that?"

That´s NOT funny at all, I´m not sure I like where this is going… Damon thought.

"Very, but now, it´s karaoke time."

Haley gave him a doubtful look.

"Are you absolutely sure you want to do that?"

Damon only smirked. "Yup! Why?"

"Well, I don´t mean to brag, but…. I´ve been told I have one of the worst singing voices ever."

"Even more fun for me."

"Okay, but you´ll have to go first, and I get to pick the song!"

"Fine, but I´ll pick yours."

"Deal." Haley was already looking through all the available songs. "Found it, you will be singing Greased lightning with John Travolta."

Damon frowned. "You will pay for that one!"

"I´m sure I will."

Much to Haley's liking Damon actually had a very nice voice and he did a really good job at imitate John Travolta. When he was done she was laughing and applauding.

"Well thank you. Now it´s your turn, and I´m going to continue on this movie theme… so.. You will be singing Fame by Irene Cara. And I want some dance moves too."

Haley finished the rest of her drink.

"Got it." She unbuttoned half her shirt and tied it just above her navel showing the skin between her low cut jeans and the now very short shirt. To Damon's liking her figure was very well sculptured.

This girl just keeps surprising me… was the last thing crossing through Damon's mind when she begun to sing and coping the dance moves from the movie almost exactly. The person who told her she had no voice was either deaf or just plain evil because she had a voice that would make angels jealous.

When she finish she sat down beside Damon on the couch.

"You´re a really bad host, you know that?" She said a little out of breath from all the dancing.

"What? Why would you say that?"

"My glass has been empty almost 5 minutes now." She gave him half a smile.

"Well we can´t have that no can we?"

They continued to sing and dance for a little over an hour before the alcohol was beginning to get the better of them both. And they settled for just putting on the radio.

"One more question."

"Shoot." Haley's was now starting to a little more drunk than she had intended but so far Damon had been behaving perfectly all night.

"How did your family go from Fell to Pierce?"

"I really have no idea. But the answer to that is probably packed away in one of the many many boxes of papers my family so persistently gathers."

"Hm, interesting."

When Stefan and Elena walked in to the living room an hour later the sight that met them was probably the last thing they´ve expected.

Damon was passed out on the couch in a half sitting position with an arm wrapped protectively around Haley who was sleeping peacefully in his lap.

Damon was drunk to the point where he didn´t even hear Stefan until he loudly cleared his throat.

"What? I´m up." He said as he struggled to open his eyes

"What did you do to her?" Elena asked with a hint of anger.

"What did I do to her? What the hell did she do to me? How did she manage to get me this drunk?"

"Probably the same way you got her drunk." Stefan lightly shook Haley trying to wake her up.

"Mark, not yet." She mumbles, "Just 10 more minutes, please. Don´t tell mom…"

"Haley, it´s Stefan. I´m going to let Elena drive you home okay?"

"Stefan?" She mumbled surprised. And then with sorrow in her voice she said. "Oh I forgot…"

By now Damon was starting to sober up a little; luckily for him alcohol passed through vampires a lot faster than humans.

He stood up with Haley still in his arms.

"Come on my little drunk, let´s get you home."

He carried her out to Elena's car, put her in the back seat and jumped in the passenger's seat himself. Elena got in and gave him an angry look.

"Remind me again why you are in my car?"

"I can get out if you prefer to carry her to bed yourself." He gave her his very famous smirk.

"Fine, you can come."

When they got to Matt´s house Damon lifted the still sleeping Haley from the car and carried her to the porch. The cool air woke her up enough to stand on her on two feet. Just before she opened the door and walked in she turned to Damon, kissed him on the cheek and whispered in his ear.

"I know what you are…" And with that she was inside and the door was closed.

When Damon got back in the car his face was a mixture of fear and confusion.

"Damon, what´s wrong?"

"I don´t know yet…"

"Care to explain?"

"When we get home, I don´t want to explain this again to saint Stefan."

As soon as they walked through the front door at the boarding house Haley asked again.

"We´re home, what´s wrong? What did she say to you on that porch?"

"Yes, Damon, what did she say to you on that porch?" Stefan who appeared in the doorway asked.

"She said; I know what you are."

"What?" Was all Elena managed to get out.

"That doesn´t mean anything. She was beyond drunk, she could have meant just about anything." Stefan said.

"That´s not all. Did you know that her family is originally from Mystic Falls?"

"So… a lot of family's come from here. You´re reaching here Damon."

"Stefan, her great great something grandmother was Margaret Fell. Do you remember her?"

"Vaguely. Honoria´s sister right? Wasn´t she sent away for medical reasons?"

"Exactly how naïve are you? Medical reasons? In June of 1864? Just months before the whole vampire disaster?"

"Fine." Stefan admitted. "You got a point."

"Do you know her last name? Elena? Anyone? No? It´s Pierce. And you know what else she told me? Funny little thing. One of her ancestors was named Katherine." He almost spat her name out.

"He´s right Stefan, it can´t all be coincident."

"Ahh but I haven´t even told you the best part yet. The first night I met her at the Grill, I tried to compel her to give me the drink for free. It had no affect what so ever."

"Vervain?" Stefan asked

"How should I know?"

"Well you seem to know everything else."

"If I had all the answers we wouldn´t be having this conversation would we? Are you sure she didn´t say anything to you Elena?"

"Yes, of course I´m sure Damon. I´m not an idiot!"

"Well you are dating Stefan…"

"Shut up Damon!"

"Damon let´s be serious for just a second here."

"Oh I´m serious, tomorrow I plan on getting a lot of answers for a lot of questions."

"What are you going to do?"

"Not sure yet. But right now, I´m going to sleep."

Damon left Stefan and Elena and went up to his bedroom, when he was just out of reach Elena burst out in laughter.

"Elena? What´s so funny?"

"Damon. I don´t think I have ever seen him this drunk."

"So?" Stefan said, still not realizing what was so funny.

"Haley must really hold her liquor."

And then it hit Stefan, and he too began to laugh uncontrollably.

"SHUT UP!" Damon yelled from upstairs. "Vampire hearing you know!"

This of course only made them laugh even harder.

At the same time across town Haley was struggling to get ready for bed without waking Caroline and Matt but of course she was failing miserably. And it didn´t take long before both of them was standing in the living room trying to decide whether or not to check on her.

When they heard a loud bump followed by an "Ouch!" Caroline knocked on the bathroom door.

"Haley? You okay?" She carefully pushed the door open only to find Haley tangled up in her shirt.

"Not so much…"

"Are you drunk?"

"Is there a word for what you are when you passed drunk?"

"Noo, not that I know of."

"Then I´m drunk."

"I can´t believe I´m saying this but, do you need some help?"

"Thank you."

As Caroline helped her unbutton her shirt and get her shoes off she just couldn´t resist to ask how on earth she´d gotten to this point.

"Oh I don´t know. I think I lost track of the drinks somewhere along "mamma mia"."

"The movie?"

She shook her head. "No karaoke with Damon."

"Salvatore?"

"Mhm that would be the one."

"He is so dead." Caroline grumbled

"No he is just drunk too."

"Not to morrow, then he´ll wish he was dead! Wait, did you say karaoke? Damon doesn´t do karaoke."

"He did tonight."

"Haley, don´t take this the wrong way, but you really need to stay as far away as possible from that guy. He´s nothing but trouble."

"I know that now, I wish you´d told me before."

"You should probably get some sleep, you´re going to need it."

Caroline began to leave the bathroom when Haley grabbed her arm.

"Thank you." She said.

Caroline smiled and nodded before she returned to Matt´s room and climbed back into bed with him.

"Is she okay?"

"She´s going to have the world's worst hangover tomorrow but other than that she´ll be just fine."

"Thank you for being nice to her. I know you don´t really like her."

"What do you mean, I like her I just, I don´t…"

"You are just a little insecure and jealous. I got it, so thank you."


	5. Chapter 5

_I´m so happy you like it. And thank you all for the reviews, it always makes me happy to read what you think about the chapter and the story. I think i have a pretty good idea about where i want to take this story, and there will be a surprise or two in it. Well here´s the next chapter, please enjoy!_

Chapter 5

Haley woke up just around 8 o´clock the next morning after getting just about 4 hours sleep. Caroline was right. She did have the world's worst hangover. It was bad up till the point where she couldn´t even go back to sleep so she took a shower, got dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top before dragging herself to the kitchen to make some coffee.

Two aspirins and three cups of coffee later Matt and Caroline appeared.

"Good morning." Matt said.

"No." Haley mumbled.

"That bad huh?"

"Worse. But I made coffee."

Haley had just finished the sentence when there was a knock at the door.

"I´ll get it." Caroline offered. She left the room and opened the door only to find Damon standing outside.

"What do you want?"

"Is Haley here?"

"Yes, but I seriously doubts that she wants to see you."

"Could you ask her?" Damon said as nice as he could, when what he really wanted to do was smack her over the head and go get Haley by himself.

"HALEY! Damon is here to see you!" She yelled.

"Not interested." Came a muffled answer from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I´m not really asking. And I´m not leaving until I get to talk to her so unless you want me here all day…"

Caroline held up her hand.

"Say no more I´ll get her!"

With very determent step Caroline returned to the kitchen. As soon as she walked through the door Haley rose from her seat.

"I heard him, I´ll go talk to him."

She was so hung over every step made her want to crawl into bed again and never get up. After what seem like a marathon she was at the door. She gave Damon one look and was surprised by how good he looked in black jeans and a black t-shirt, he didn´t seem remotely hung over.

"What?" She said not at all happy that he didn´t fell half as bad as she did.

"And a good morning to you too!"

"I´ll ask again, what do you want?"

"We need to talk. And I mean we really need to talk about a lot of serious subjects."

"Then we can do that tomorrow, because right now, thanks to you I´m going to curl up in my bed and feel really really sorry for myself for the rest of the day."

"No right now you will go get a jacket and some shoes and come with me."

"Good bye Damon." She said and was just about to shut the door when she remembered how nice both Matt and Caroline had been to her, it would be really unfair to them if Damon decided to make his threat real and terrorize their house the entire day.

"Fine. I´ll come, but you will by me breakfast."

"Not happening."

"Then maybe I´ll get car sick…" Just the thought of having her throw up in his car made him change his mind.

"Okay, I´ll by you breakfast."

"I´ll be right back." She grabbed a hoody and a pair of sneakers from her room, not really carrying how she looked. Which of course didn´t matter since was absolutely beautiful just the way she was with no makeup and just sweatpants on.

"Matt! I´m leaving!" She yelled towards the kitchen. "Let´s go then, and might I add, this better be very important."

"Oh it is." As he promised Damon made a stop at the Grill and bought breakfast before heading for the boardinghouse again. As soon as Damon parked the car Elena came running towards them.

"Are you a complete idiot Damon? No don´t answer that I already know the answer. You can´t just go pick people up because you feel like it!" After giving Damon the lecture he needed she turned to Haley. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. How come he doesn´t have the hangover from hell? He was just as drunk as I was."

"He," Elena said nodding towards Damon. "Doesn´t work like we normal people do. Come inside and sit down."

"I thought you´d never ask."

After annoying Damon to the fullest by eating her food as slowly as possible she came to the conclusion that it was time to find out just exactly it was that was so important to Damon and Stefan.

She was looking directly at Damon when she asked her question.

"Okay, I´ve had my fun. What is it that is so damn important that it can´t wait for tomorrow"

"Tell me everything about your family." Was all he said.

"What? You dragged me here to talk about my dead family? Are you kidding me?"

"Please," Stefan said, "It really is important. Could you start by telling us what you know about Margret Fell?"

"I don´t know that much. She was my great great something grandmother, I know she was from this town but her sister, uhm… Honoria sent her to some relatives further down in the south due to some medical reason."

"What was the name of the relatives?"

"I don´t know."

"Please please think."

"Why are you two so interested in my family? Not even I care that much."

"Okay," Damon said. "Different question. When Elena and I dropped you off last night you said to me, and I quote; I know what you are. What did you mean by that?"

Haley hesitated for a second before answering, and that second was all Stefan and Damon needed to realize that she did know what they were.

"How should I know what I meant? I was so drunk I had to get help from Caroline to get into bed…"

"You are lying. You know exactly what you meant. You are just afraid to say it."

Elena sat down on the couch next to Haley and took her hand.

"It´s okay."

But Haley just shook her head.

"No, no it´s not okay. You´ll think I´m crazy." But Elena gently squeezed her hand, urging her to speak.

"No, we won´t. I promise."

"Vampires." She whispered so quiet that if Elena hadn´t been sitting right next to her she wouldn´t have heard it.

Damon gave Stefan a worried look, and Damon never gave anyone a worried look.

"And why would you say that? Vampires are a fiction of imagination."

"No Damon, it´s not. I know because I´ve seen it."

"What do you mean, you´ve seen it?"

"I really don´t want to talk about it. Can we please just drop it? And as far as my family goes feel free to find out whatever you want just don´t involve me in it."

Stefan sat down on Haley's other side.

"I´m sorry, Haley, but we can´t just drop it. Could you please just tell us what you meant?"

She took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Vampires killed my family. Well what was left of it anyway. Like I said, I´m an army kid. And my dad did die in Iraq, but what I didn´t tell you was that my mom and brother was killed shortly thereafter. I was out with some friends and just lost track of time and got home almost an hour too late. When I got to my house I heard a lot of sound and noises coming from inside so I snuck around to the back and peeked through the window…" Her voice trailed off, lost in the memories of that day.

"Please continue," Stefan urged her.

"As I said, I peek through the window, and what I saw… it was like something from a horror movie. There were two people, draining my mom and brother from all their blood. I´m not sure what happened next, I don´t really remember anything until I was at neighbor's house screaming for help."

"Did you tell anyone what you saw?"

"I´m not an idiot Damon. Who would have believed me?"

"Probably no one, unless it´s in this town." Stefan said, offering her a small smile. "How did you find out about vampires after that?"

"I did some research, some of it of course turns out to be a complete waste of time, and some of it turned out to be quite true."

"Like vervain?" Damon asked.

"Yep," She said smirking and showing her heart shaped necklace. "I have it on me at all times, it´s pure silver with vervain inside."

"So that´s why I couldn´t compel you at the Grill. I was wondering about that."

"I´m sure you were" Haley said to Damon still smirking. "You do realize that´s what gave you away, right?"

"I do _now_. So do you have any idea who it was or why they did it?" Damon asked.

Haley became serious again and shook her head.

"No. It´s not like I intentionally pissed a bunch of vampires off, and for all I know, if I had just been home when I was supposed to, I would be dead too."

"But you´re not. And that´s a good thing." Elena said. "But there has to be a reason to why your family was killed by vampires. I can´t believe it´s a coincident, when it comes down to it you are a Fell, and just like the Lockwood's, the Gilberts and Salvatore's your family founded this city, and every one of them had secrets, I bet the Fells have too."

"Oh there´s no doubt about that." Damon said.

"Do you know something we don´t?" Elena said look at him with suspicion.

"No, but don´t you think it goes without saying? Salvatore brothers turned vampires, Gilberts fall in love with vampires, and Lockwood's are werewolves. Why shouldn´t the Fells have some dirty secrets? The trick is to find out what it is." Damon simply stated.

Stefan frowned. "And just how do you suggest we do that?"

Damon turned to Haley.

"You will have to dig up all the old boxes you talked about." Haley shook her head and immediately regretted it when the room started to spin.

"Uh, no I don´t. They are packed away in a storage at the base where we lived, and I´m NOT going back there, ever again. It´s not even up for discussion. I´ll be glad to tell you where it is but that´s as far as I go."

"Not good enough Haley, you´re going." Damon's statement didn´t leave any room for argument but of course that didn´t stop Haley from arguing anyway.

"Am not."

"Yes you are."

"No I´m not, give me one, just one good reason why I should!"

"Well… well because I said so!"

"That´s definitely not good enough."

Elena and Stefan were watching the two of them fight like children and neither of them could help the smiles that were creeping up on them. Finally Stefan cleared his throat rather loud.

"Kid´s, play nice now."

Haley held up her hands in defeat.

"Fine, you know what? I´m done, with all of this. Take me home Damon. _NOW_!"

She rose from the couch and headed towards the front door, Damon quickly followed her not at all happy with the way the discussion ended.

Haley got inside Damon's car and slammed the door, seconds later he was in the driver's seat looking angry at her.

"You that door doesn´t fit on the other side."

"Shut up and drive, will you."

"This conversation isn´t over yet and you know it."

"I don´t care what you have to say, there is nothing, absolutely nothing that will make me go back and go through all that. You have no idea how hard I´ve tried to leave it behind me."

"Oh I know a thing or two about trying to leave the past behind, and take it from someone who knows, it will not stay in the past until you deal with it."

"But I don´t want to deal with it." Haley said sounding like pouting child.

Damon gently put his hand over hers, and when he spoke his voice was soft and filled with compassion.

"Then think about it like this. There is a very good chance that both you and Elena and possibly even Jeremy is in danger and will stay that way unless we can figure at what it is that someone is trying so hard to keep hidden."

"But I really don´t want to go back there. When I left I swore to never ever set foot on that base again, I was going to leave all of that behind."

"And how is that working for you?"

Haley frowned. "Not very well."

"Then it´s settled, tomorrow you and I are taking a road trip to, where exactly are going?"

"Langley air force base."


	6. Chapter 6

_I´m so so so so sorry that it´s taken me this long to update, but I´ve just started to work again after my maternity leave and it´s really wearing me down. By the time dinner is done and the girls are in bed I crash too. I know it´s a bad excuse, but it´s true. So once again I´m truly sorry! _

_But a huge thanks to every single one that read this story. Thank you, and I hope you like this chapter too…_

Chapter 6

The next morning Haley woke up with only one thought in her head. I´m so going to regret this day for the rest of my life. I can´t believe I actually let Damon talk me into this, what is it about that guy? Besides the fact that he looks like a movie star, oh no no no I´m not going down that road, not with him. I´m just going to get through this day.

She showered, dried her hair, and did her makeup all while considering what to wear.

Well what do you wear when you go visit you past? What says Hey, I´m sorry I disappeared off the face of the earth, but now I´m back and I want a favor.

After trying on a least five different outfits she decided to go with what she usually wore. Blue jeans, a white tank top and a black cardigan. Just to make herself feel more comfortable about the whole situation she put on a pair of black high heeled pumps.

She was just pouring herself a cup of coffee when Matt walked in to the kitchen.

"Good morning, wow you look great. " He sounded so sincere that Haley couldn´t help but smile.

"Thank you. Coffee?" She said holding up the pot.

"Yes please. So are you going somewhere today?"

"Unfortunately, yes. So tell me does this outfit say; I´m sorry I disappeared without a word but now that I´m here I need a favor."

"Not really, but you do look great."

"Yeah, I was afraid of that."

"Do you want to tell me where you are going?" Matts question sounded so honest she couldn´t resist answering him.

"I´m going to visit my past. And I don´t think I´ll be back until tomorrow so don´t wait up." That last part she said with a huge smile on her face.

Matt just laughed. "I wasn´t planning to since I´m going to sleep at Caroline's tonight."

Haley to a look at her watch.

"Well I better go, I hope you have fun tonight and I´ll see you tomorrow."

"Uhm, Haley, can I ask you something? And don´t take this the wrong way. But is there something going on between you and Damon? You know Stefan´s brother."

"What do you mean by going on? Is there something romantic between us?"

"Well yeah, sort of…"

"Then NO there is nothing going on between us. I know he can be an ass but so far he´s been really nice to me, in fact, he is the one that talked me into this whole making a mend with my past trip."

"Are you going alone?"

"Actually Damon is coming with me. But don´t worry I´ll be fine."

"If you say so."

She smiled at him.

"I better get going." She took her duffel bag from the floor and headed towards the door, just as she was about to open it there was a knock. And to her surprise it was Damon.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well I was afraid you were going to bail on me so I decided to check up on you."

"I´m not bailing, I´m not even late yet."

"And now you don´t get a chance to be either. Come on let´s go we have a long drive a head of us. So get in the car."

"You´re not driving."

"Well, you´re not driving my car, and I´m definitely not going anywhere in your."

Haley realized that she was going to lose this one so she just let it go and got in Damon´s car. Seconds later Damon in the driver's seat.

"Fine, we can take your car, but I choose the music." She said with a smirk. Damon wasn´t at all pleased with that solution but figured it would be better to let her have her will rather than listen to her complain the whole way.

They sat in silence for an hour before Haley broke the silence.

"So remind me again why I´m doing this?"

"Because somewhere in your family's past is a very dirty little secret that someone really doesn´t want people to know about. And as long as it stays that way you, Elena and God knows who else is in real danger. "

"Okay, fine I get it. But I still don´t like it, and I don´t understand why you can´t go by yourself, you can compel almost everyone."

"I could do that but it´s better this way; you need to deal with it so you can move on."

"Have I told you that I don´t like you at all?"

Once again Damon smirked at her.

"That´s what your words say, but that´s not what your body wants."

Haley smacked him on the arm.

"You´re an ass."

The silence fell in the car again and it wasn´t until they were close to a gas station that Damon spoke again.

"Do you want something?"

"Yeah, coffee would be great."

"We´ve been driving for over three hours now, you´re not hungry?"

Haley shook her head.

"No, I´m not."

"Now you´re lying, I can hear your stomach growling. But the look on your face tells me that coffee it is."

"Thank you, I´m not sure I can handle fighting you on everything right now."

As Damon pulled in to the gas station he took a second to actually look at Haley. She was beautiful, but then again she was always beautiful, but to day her face just seemed hard, and sad.

"This really is that hard on you isn´t it."

Her first reaction was to give some snarky comment back, but when she saw the honest concern in his eyes she just nodded.

"Yes, it really is that hard. This is the last place I ever saw my family alive. I watched them get killed by someone or something that isn´t even supposed to exist. .Not only did I lose them but I lost the closest thing to a home I had."

He took her hand and held it.

"It´s okay, I get it."

And for some strange reason she actually believed him. If it was his words or the fact that he held her hand she had no idea but somehow he made her feel just a little bit better.

"Thank you."

"So you want to get something to eat now?"

"Sure."

They both got out of the car and Haley took a deep breath, with every passing kilometer they got closer to the inevitable.

Damon extended his hand.

"Come on."

She smiled and took it, and just as before she got the feeling that maybe, just maybe everything would be alright.

When they got inside Damon let go of her.

"You go and find something to eat and I´ll take the coffee."

The place didn´t offer much to eat and Haley had to settle for some candy bars which wasn´t really what she wanted. She walked up to the counter and waited for Damon to come with the coffee.

The old man behind the counter looked at her.

"You´re a lucky girl."

"And why is that?"

"He loves you very much."

Haley had no idea what he was talking about.

"Who?"

"Your boyfriend, the young man you came with…"

"Oh... well he´s not…"

She didn´t get the chance to finish the sentence because Damon appeared next to her and put his arm around her waist.

"Honey, don´t be rude." Damon paid and they left the store.

"What was that for?"

"If the it makes the old man happy to think that I´m your boyfriend then let him think so."

Since she didn´t have anything to say to that she kept quiet and just nodded.

They went back to the car and started to drive again.

"Damon, just what is your plan?"

"My plan?"

"When we get to Langley, what are you planning to do? How are we going to get on base? Sure you can compel the guards but as soon as I set my foot on that base it will raise questions. It´s only been a year, most of the people still know me."

Damon thought about that for a second.

"Well then we just have to do it the right way."

"Meaning? Oh God you mean going through all the paper work and questions and…."

"That´s what I meant, do you still know someone on base?"

Haley gave a small nod.

"Yes. But it´s not someone I´m looking forward to seeing."

"Great, then that´s our way in." Damon said with a smile and ignoring Haley's obvious discomfort.

Haley swallowed hard and regretted once again that she agreed to this.

"Damon."

"Yes, Haley."

"What exactly is it that you think, or hope to find?"

"I´m not sure yet. But I don´t think that it is a coincident that Honoria sent her sister away just before the whole ugly vampire story. And that you are related to her, and your name is Pierce, and your family got killed by vampires out of no reason at all on an army base. And I am sorry, but I´m pretty sure you were the target."

"But why? And what vampire story, and who is this Katherine that you hate so much? If I´m going to do this I think you owe me some explanations!"

"Fine. But I´m not sure you´ll like it."

"Of course not. I don´t like anything about this."

Damon started talking, he told her about Katherine, how she came in to their lives, about her beauty and her betrayal. He even found himself telling her about the council and his father.

"I´m sorry Damon." She said, and this time it was Haley that took Damon's hand.

"What are you sorry about? You had nothing to do with any of this."

"I know, but I´m still sorry, I wish you and Stefan didn´t have to go through all of it. I will do my best to put an end to it. If there is anything in those boxes that will help you, I´ll do everything I can to find it. But what exactly is it that you think you´ll find?"

"I really don´t know. But don´t you find it interesting that a Fell became a Pierce?"

"I guess, but it´s not that unusual name."

"No, but your ancestor was named Katherine…"

"Okay, fine you have a point there."

Haley was getting tiered and did her best to hide her yawn. But of course Damon saw it.

"Are you tiered?"

"A little."

"Get some sleep; it will be a while before we´re there."

"Are you sure? Won´t that be boring for you?"

Damon smiled, she actually cares if I´m bored or not.

"No it´s fine, you look like you need it."

Haley closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep. But very soon she started to dream, it was a weird dream, she was back in Mystic Falls, but it looked different, so much older, and everyone was dressed differently. She looked down only to find that she too was wearing the same long skirt as everyone else.

Oh, this must be what it was like in the 1800´s, this is Damon´s story.

And at first she relived everything that Damon told her, she could see Damon and Stefan, their father and everyone else. And then the strangest thing happened. A young black girl came up to her.

"Hi, Haley." She said "I think it´s time you get some answers, and questions."

"Who are you?"

"Emily." The girl simply answered.

Haley wanted to ask her who she was and why she was the only one that seemed to notice her, but Emily simple held her hand up as to tell her to be quiet.

"You will get your answers when it is time. For now just watch and learn."

The scene changed in front of Haley as Emily brought her to what seemed like a church. There were men carrying people, both women and children and men inside. Haley´s heart froze when she saw Elena being carried by one of the men.

"Elena!" She screamed. But immediately quiet down by Emily who put her hand over her mouth.

"That´s not Elena, that´s Katherine." She whispered in her ear. "Make sure history does not repeat itself."

That was the last thing Haley remembered before opening her eyes and staring into Damon´s worried once.

"Haley! It´s okay, everything is okay." He said and held her close to him. Relives to be back in the real world she leaned in further to his embrace just to make sure she was actually awake.

"Oh, thank God. She sighed.

"It was just as bad dream. Okay? You´re awake now and everything is the way it should."

But Haley just shook her head.

"No," She said." Nothing is the way it should be. We have to put an end to this story. Whatever this is it has to stop, right now. This has been going on for way to many years!"

The passion in her voice almost scared Damon, but it also told him that she was serious about what she was saying.

"Wait, why have we stopped?"

"Because you were screaming and squirming up to the point it was scary. It must have been some dream huh?"

"Yeah, I guess it´s because of what you told me, because it felt like I was there, watching from a distance. And then all of a sudden a girl came up to me. She told me it was time I got some answers and questions. And then I watched Elena get carried into a church, and later it was set on fire…" When she said that last part her voice was trembling.

"What was her name?" Damon asked very carefully.

"Who?"

"The girl that spoke to you."

"Emily." Haley answered without hesitation.

"I´m not surprised." Was all Damon said.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"What do you mean? Who is she?"

"Was. She´s long gone, Emily was Katherine's hand maid. And a which, she was utterly loyal to her, but she couldn´t let innocent people die so she did the only thing she could and used her magic to help those who deserved it."

"Why is she in my dream?"

"I honestly have no idea, but you´ll probably find out one way or another."

Damon who was still holding Haley in his arms slowly let her go.

"It´s not that I don´t like to have beautiful women in my arms, but if you ´re okay we really need to keep going. We´re almost there."

Haley's cheeks turned red.

"Sorry, I´m fine, let´s keep going. I want to get this over with."

It took almost 40 minutes before they arrived at the base. Damon parked the car and looked over at Haley who had turned just as pale as he was, with a hint of grey. When she tried to open her door her hand shook so bad she put it back in her lap and took a deep breath.

"I changed my mind. I can´t do this." There was a slight tremble in her voice.

Damon´s heart almost broke at the sight of her, but he didn´t say anything. He just got out of the car, walked over to her side, opened the door and offered her his hand.

"Yes you can. Now come on."

"Please, please don´t make me do this, I´m not ready, can´t we come back in a year or 10?"

"Come on Haley, we´ve had this conversation already."

Realizing that there was no way out she took Damon´s hand and got out. As they got closer to the gate Haley´s hold on Damon´s hand tightened.

"Relax. You´ll be fine."

Haley took one last breath before releasing Damon´s hand and walking up to the guard.

"Hi, I´m here to see the general."

"Is he expecting you?"

"I doubt that."

"Then I´m afraid you´ll have to make an appointment first."

"Please just tell the General that Haley is here to see him."

The guard looked a little annoyed, but did as she asked and called the General's office. As soon as he hung up the phone he turned back to Haley.

"Please sit down Miss Pierce, the General will be here shortly."

Haley nodded and sat down next to Damon.

"The General?" He whispered, "Is there more you left out?"

"Does it matter?"

Luckily just as Damon was about to answer, the General walked through the door. And straight over to Haley.

"Haley? It really is you. I almost didn´t believe it but here you are."

Haley rose from her seat.

"Hello General. Nice to see you again."

"I´m still your grandfather Haley."

"Yes sir. She said looking down at the floor. " Hello grandpa."

Damon didn´t know exactly what it was but something about Haley's behavior seemed off.

"Who is the young man you have with you?"

"I´m sorry, this is my friend Damon. Damon, this is my grandfather General Pierce."

Damon shook his hand.

"It´s an honor to meet you sir."

"Why don´t we catch up somewhere more private?"

A few minutes later both Haley and Damon had gotten their temporary ID-cards and they were on their way home to the General.

"Can I get you some tea? Or coffee?"

Haley's was still uncomfortably silent and didn´t answer the Generals question.

"Coffee would be great sir." Damon answered in her place. "Haley, would you mind giving me a house tour? I would love to see the rest of this beautiful house."

Haley nodded and gave him a small smile.

"Of course, follow me." Like a zombie she left the kitchen and headed towards the garden. As soon as they were out of earshot Damon grabbed Haley's arm. But she didn´t turn around.

"What´s wrong?"

"Nothing." She whispered. And shook her head.

"You look like you´re either going to pass out or throw up, so I´m going to go with, you´re lying. What´s wrong?"

"I can´t do this, Damon I´m scared. I don´t want to be here, I don´t care what happened all those years ago, and I really don´t want to find out, I just want to leave!"

Damon turned her around so that she was finally facing him.

"You want to run away again."

"I just want to leave. I didn´t want to come in the first place, and now that I´m here I really don´t want to be here."

"Like I said. You just want to run away again. I get that you are scared, but don´t you think it´s time to finally put an end to whatever this is? Do you really want to keep running the rest of your life when you don´t even know what you´re running from?"

Haley sighed.

"No, I guess not."

"I´ll be here all the way. You are not alone anymore, okay? We´ll do this together. You, me, Elena and even saint Stefan. I promise."

_What the hell are you promising her that for? That wasn´t the plan… You´re promising her because you´re an idiot. Damon told himself. _

"Promise?" Haley said

"Promise." Damon repeated.

What they didn´t see was that from behind the window General Pierce was carefully following their body language throughout the conversation. And even though he couldn´t make out the words, something told him that his granddaughter was deeply worried about something and the young man was trying to comfort her and talk some sense in to her.

_Interesting, _he thought, _I wonder why she´s really here, and what the young man has to do with it._

He was abruptly brought back to reality by Haley.

"Grandpa, is the coffee ready?"

"Yes dear. I thought we could sit out on the porch. I´m really interested to hear where you´ve been all this time. And how you met this young man."

"Of course." She said and smiled.

They all sat down on the large porch in front of the house. Damon was immediately struck by how peaceful it seemed. After seeing this it was almost hard to believe that all the horrible thing Haley described actually took place, but of course Damon knew better than to believe that things where what they looked like.

"So where do you live now Haley?"

"In a small town called Mystic Falls. It´s a couple of hours drive from here."

Damon searched the Generals face for any kind of reaction but there were none.

"Mystic falls? Never heard of it, but I´m guessing that´s where you´re from to Damon."

"Yes sir." Damon said with a smile.

Haley didn´t know if she was supposed to feel worried or relieved by Damon´s behavior. There was nothing of his usual cocky way or snarky comments in the way he answered her grandfather.

"Do you have family there?"

"No, not anymore, now it´s just me and my brother."

The conversation continued, and Damon was asked about his family, and how he met Haley. Haley was asked where she´d been this past year, what she was doing, if she went to school or had a job, where she lived and so on and so on…

The only question that was carefully avoided was why she was back.

"So Haley. You know I have to ask this."

She nodded, and Damon could see how she became tense. She knew the question even before it was asked.

"I know."

"Why are you here? After all this time you didn´t come back here to drink coffee and check on me. That you could have done over the phone."

Again she nodded.

"I´ve decided to do some research on my family back ground. The history teacher told me that the town has a really interesting history, and I remember that mum once told me that her family was originally from Mystic Falls. So I figured there would be a lot of information in all the old boxes we have stored away. They do still exist, don´t they?"

"Of course they do. They are yours to do whatever you please with."

"Thank you grandpa."

Haley rose from her chair.

"I know you must have a lot to do, so I´ll let you get back to work."

Her grandfather stood up to, and gently took her hand.

"How long are you staying?"

"Just until tomorrow. We are staying at the in just outside town."

Haley knew her grandfather wanted to ask her to stay with him, but she just couldn´t. It would just be one more reminder of what she lost, and right now she wasn´t sure she could take anymore.

"We have a charity ball tonight. Please come, both of you of course."

Haley was just about to say no, when Damon answered.

"Thank you sir, it would be an honor."

"Then I´ll see you at 7?"

Haley once more nodded.

"Yes sir." The General let go of her hand and she and Damon left.

"Why did you say yes? How am I going to get out of that now?"

"We are not getting out of anything. We are going to that ball tonight."

By now Haley was getting mad, what right did he have to make any kind of decisions about what she was doing or not.

"And just who do you think you are to decide that for me?"

"You are not the only one that´s lost everything. That old man in there, he lost everything to. You are all he has left, you don´t think that you can take one evening to make him happy? Or are you just that selfish?"

"I´m not selfish. He wasn´t here. He didn´t even come home for the funeral, I had to take care of everything by myself."

"Where was he?" Damon calmly asked.

"What?"

"You said he didn´t even come home. Where was he?"

"Afghanistan."

"And you think he had a choice? You think he chose not to come home? You know better than that Haley. You don´t get to choose, the army does that for you."

Haley knew he was right she just didn´t want to admit it, the pain was still so fresh in her memory.

"I don´t have a dress anyway."

"Then we better go shopping. You do have stores in this town, don´t you?"

"Of course we do. But I´m still broke."

"Luckily for you, I´m not."

"I´m not going to let you pay for a dress."

"Fine, call it a lone and you can pay me back later. I don´t care what you say, we are going."

Haley knew that she was defeated and did the smart thing, and just gave up.

"Fine, I give up, let´s go find something to wear."

It turned out that shopping with Damon was even worse than she expected. Every dress that Haley picked out that had a reasonable price was immediately rejected by Damon.

"I give up. We´ve been through every store but there is nothing you approve."

_And why do I care if he approves or not? I usually don´t care what anyone think´s… But then again he´s not just anyone. And that´s where these thoughts end, she told herself._

"Oh there is a lot I approve of, just none of the dresses you chose." Damon dragged Haley back to one of the stores they already been in and chose three dresses, one blue, one black and one green. Haley had to admit that they were beautiful but then she looked at the price tag.

"I can´t afford any of these so there´s no point in trying them on."

"You will try them and I will buy the one that I like the best. I have a reputation to think about. That means you can´t wear just anything."

"You really are full of yourself, you know that?"

"Of course, and you like me just the way I am." He gave her a smirk. "Now be a good girl and try on the dresses."

Reluctantly she did as asked. She begun with the green one but as soon as she put it she knew there was no way she was wearing it. Even though the fabric was beautiful the cutting of the dress made her look like 10 years older. The next dress was the black one, it was a much better choice and it looked beautiful on her.

"Come on out and let me look at you."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

She came out of the dressing room. Damon took one look at her.

"Not good enough try the blue one."

She sighed, but did as he wanted and went back to the dressing room and changed into the blue dress, by now she was so frustrated that she didn´t even bother to look in the mirror before she went out to show Damon, but by the way he reacted she probably should have.

"Is it that bad?"

Damon turned her around.

"Take a look."

Even Haley had to admit that the dress was beautiful, the color of the fabric made her eyes look even bluer.

"It really is a beautiful dress."

"It´s not only the dress that´s beautiful." Damon said and regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth.

_Idiot, why did you say that? This is not a date, please try to remember that!_

Haley who didn´t hear Damon´s thoughts just smiled.

"Thank you," she said. And went back to the dressing room to change back into her own clothes.

Finding a suit for Damon took them less than 30 minutes and then they were on their way to the small in. Only to be informed that there was only one room available.

Haley was just about protest and suggests they found something else even if it was a little further to drive.

"It will be fine, we´ll take it." Damon said.

They got their key and brought all their stuff with them up to the room. As soon as Damon opened it and Haley put her things on the floor she looked around the room.

"Seriously Damon. One bed? You know there is no way I´m sharing a bed with you."

"Oh come on, I promise to behave."

"Don´t care, you will still sleep on the couch."

"What? Why do I have to take the couch?"

"Because if I had it my way we would be somewhere else having two rooms and then you would have had your own bed."

"We´ll have this discussion tonight instead. Right now you need to get ready for the ball tonight."

Haley took a look at her watch and realized that he was right.

"Fine, but you´ll still take the couch. I´ll be in the shower."

"Want some company?" Damon said wiggling his eyebrow suggestively.

"NO!" She said, gathered the things she needed, headed for the bathroom and locked the door.

"You do know that if I wanted to get in that lock wouldn´t be much of an obstacle right?" Damon yelled to the closed door. But Haley ignored him. And just to annoy him as much as she could for promising to go to this stupid ball in the first place she took her time getting ready. As soon as she opened the door she heard Damon´s voice from the living room where he was watching TV.

"Took you long enough, if you´d stayed a couple of minutes longer I would have opened the door just too make sure you were still alive."

"I don´t think that would have been necessary, with your hearing you could just have listened to my heart beat."

"Well aren´t you a smart as." He said and turned to look at her. And whatever comment was about to cross his lips got stuck in his throat because the girl coming towards him was breathtaking beautiful. Her long dark hair was put up in a simple ponytail, her makeup was minimal but combined with the silk fabric of her dress she looked almost like a fairy princess and Damon couldn´t take his eyes of her.

_God she is beautiful! What am I going to do with her? No no no, you are not going to do anything to her._

"Damon? Is something wrong?"

"Nope, I was just thinking about how jealous every guy at that party is going to be when they see that you are with me."

"Eh thank you, I think."

_Why is he staring at me like that? Do I look that weird? And why do I care what he thinks? He´s the one that chose this dress in the first place._

"If we actually are going to this thing you better get dressed because we don´t have a lot of time left."


End file.
